Windows Desktop doesn't show up on WSL - windows-subsystem-for-linux

I just recently set up WSL with Ubuntu 18.04 on my new windows computer. I know that to access my windows files from the linux side, the C:\ drive is mapped to /mnt/c. When I try to cd to /mnt/c/Users/malik22/Desktop, however, I get a No such file or directory error. I access my window Downloads, Documents, etc. just fine from the linux side, but for some reason Desktop seems to be the only one not present.
I've been using WSL for over a year now on my old computer and have never run into this issue. Any ideas?

If your Desktop is backed up in your OneDrive it won't show up in your user directory.
You can either create a symbolic link as mentioned below by #raghav-malik or else choose to not back up your Desktop (you can instead back up your Documents directory).

Related

Access File System of a WSL as a seperate Drive

I have installed Ubuntu 20.04 from Microsoft Store as a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and I need to access the system files of it from Windows Explorer and access it as a separate Partition (as C:,D:).
Anyone know how to do this? Thanks.
I think what you are searching for is Linux File System. On WSL, as you have installed Ubuntu, You Can find it in,
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu20.04onWindows\LocalState\rootfs

Mount VHDX within WSL Ubuntu 18.04 to edit Linux files

I'm looking to change a process (which currently is an elevated PowerShell script running in Windows 10, and I want to keep it close to that) I have that currently uses Paragon Linux Filesystem for Windows tool. While it does work, it doesn't work consistently. What I'd like to do instead is to use WSL on Windows 10, 1909 currently (will go to 2004 when available), to mount a VHDX which contains to partitions, /dev/sda1 for /boot, and /dev/sda2 another for an Linux LVM. The OS within this VHDX is CentOS 7.5, and the filesystem I want to modify is formatted in ext4. I need to edit some files within a logical volume within the group.
Currently, I'm running into an issue where qemu-nbd doesn't help, as there doesn't appear to be an NBD kernel mode driver provided by the Microsoft Linux kernel in Ubuntu 18.04 image from the Windows Store. I've tried guestfish (using guestmount), but it is unable to find an operating system and fails to mount any of the volumes.
Is this possible? Am I going down the wrong path, and is this not possible?
As I understand your question...
Seems to me that you want to offline access a .vhdx containing Linux
using powershell to manipulate some files...
(I think the issue here is ext4 and file rights)
1. Mount the .vhdx you want to '''work''' in a linux virtual machine as second disk
2. Install Powershell 7 in linux VM
3. Configure Powershell remote in the Linux VM (via SSH)
4. Access the Linux VM from Windows Powershell 7 and execute your scripts.
there are other ways using VMs+NBD or using WSL and mounted
drives... but this seems to be the most practical end efficient!
as you for sure know you can start/stop the VMs from Powershell

Accessing files without installing Dropbox from Linux OS installed parellelly in Windows7

I have installed Dropbox in Windows 7. Also, installed Ubuntu Linux 14.04 in parallel. Through online login to Dropbox account allows access to files in Dropbox. However, to work with the files in Dropbox I have to install Dropbox in Linux also. This require additional space in the same PC. So, is it possible to access and work with files in Dropbox#Windows7 without installing Dropbox in Ubuntu (which is installed in the same PC parelelly)?.
You can access windows disks in linux, you just need to map it correctly. Then you can do whatever you want with files. But dropbox magic will not work until you load windows again.
Only when you bootup from windows again, since it is dropbox app that does syncing. What you may do is to deploy dropbox on both windows and linux, but point them to the same data folder. Still there could be some problems with text files, as windows and linux are not treating line endings the same way. So if a file was synchronized in windows, it will have windows endings, and vice-versa.
Maybe you could configure a remote filesystem on a USB-Stick so both your systems can access on it and you have a directory where dropbox stores the files.
Look here: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox/Idea-Portable-Dropbox-folder-on-flash-drive/idi-p/122804

after XAMPP install on Mac Sierra - it works, but there is no XAMPP folder. Where is everything?

I have installed XAMPP. It works. I'm trying to figure out the following:
1/ it appears there are now TWO apache servers on my mac. XAMPP just installed an additional server. One is already installed on the default Sierra OS. Is that correct?
2/ I can't find where XAMPP is reading files (document root). in the newly created directory: XAMPP.APP, the file structure is not as indicated in the FAQ's. For example, there is no xamppfiles or logs directory in the XAMPP.app directory.
Many thanks in advance
I installed XAMPP-VM (VM - as in virtual machine). Therefore, in the XAMPP application, I needed to click on "Volumes" and select "Mount" . I can then see this mounted volume in the MAC finder under "Shared". From there, I can get to all the necessary files including "lampp/htdocs".
I haven't encountered a web server on the default installation of macOS.
Run XAMPP in the applications folder and then click on the 'Open Terminal' button. At the prompt, type cd /opt/lampp and this is the document root.

Sync chroot folder with Google Drive or Dropbox in Chrome OS

I have crouton running on a chromebook 11 with ubuntu precise in it. I am looking for a way to sync files in some folders in the ubuntu chroot with Google Drive. I am thinking I can create a link between the mounted chroot partition and a sync'ed folder in the Chrome OS, but I can't find where the synced Google Drive folder is in Chrome OS.
Could anyone please help?
Bottom line I want to sync files I create in the chroot to an online service, Google Drive or Dropbox, whatever works.
Thank you in advance
SUMMARY
The best way to sync files (code, in my case) is to use git and bitbucket/github. Install git in the chroot, and sync the code into the Downloads folder so it can be accessed from both ChromeOS and the chroot (and compiled and ran locally on both computers). I stored all other files in Google Drive so they could be accessed from ChromeOS, other computers, and the chroot.
Here are the options I looked into, but did not end up using
Accessing the Google Drive cache directly on the chromebook
Google drive in the chrome os stores the file data in
/home/chronos/user/GCache/v1/files
However, it does not name the files how they are named in google drive (it names them by some uuid, and stores meta in another folder).
3rd party tools to mount Google Drive folder in linux
https://github.com/dsoprea/GDriveFS
I was able to get GDriveFS working, but it was slow and chmod does not work in its file system. The permission are all static at 666, so programs will not execute.
https://github.com/astrada/google-drive-ocamlfuse/
I was not able to get ocamlfuse working on an arm Chromebook.
https://github.com/Grive/grive
I was able to get Grive working, but it has some problems and hasn't been updated in over a year. Would not recommend if there is a chance of merge conflicts.